USPTO Patents Application 09955076

United States Patent and Trademark Office

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office

Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450

Alexandria. Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov

APPLICATION NO.

FILING DATE

FIRST NAMED INVENTOR

ATTORNEY DOCKET NO.

CONFIRMATION NO.

09/955,076

09/19/2001

Eiji Sakagami

22850 7590 07/26/2004

OBLON, SPIVAK, MCCLELLAND, MAIER & NEUSTADT, P.C.
1940 DUKE STREET
ALEXANDRIA, VA 22314

214019US2

9771

EXAMINER

WEISS, HOWARD

ART UNIT

PAPER NUMBER

2814

DATE MAILED: 07/26/2004

Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.

PTO-90C (Rev. 10/03)

Application No.

09/955,076

Applicant(s) ^

SAKAGAMI, EIJI

Examiner

Howard Weiss

Art Unit

2814

•• ThQ MAILING DATE of this communication appears on the cover sheet with the correspondence address -
Period for Reply

A SHORTENED STATUTORY PERIOD FOR REPLY IS SET TO EXPIRE 3 MONTH(S) FROM
THE MAILING DATE OF THIS COMMUNICATION.

- Extensions of time may be available under the provisions of 37 CFR 1 .136(a). In no event, however, may a reply be timely filed
after SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- If the period for reply specified above is less than thirty (30) days, a reply within the statutory minimum of thirty (30) days will be considered timely.

- If NO period for reply Is specified above, the maximum statutory period will apply and will expire SIX (6) MONTHS from the mailing date of this communication.

- Failure to reply within the set or extended period for reply will, by statute, cause the application to become ABANDONED (35 U.S.C. § 133).
Any reply received by the Office later than three months after the mailing date of this communication, even if timely filed, may reduce any
earned patent term adjustment. See 37 CFR 1.704(b).

Status

1 )[3 Responsive to communication(s) filed on 26 April 2004 .
2a)n This action is FINAL. 2b)13 This action is non-final.

3) n Since this application is in condition for allowance except for fonnal matters, prosecution as to the merits is

closed in accordance with the practice under Ex parte Quayle, 1935 CD. 11, 453 O.G. 213.

Disposition of Claims

4) 13 Claim(s) 1-21 i^are pending in the application.

4a) Of the above claim(s) 7-21 T^re withdrawn from consideration.

5) 0 Claim(s) is/are allowed.

6) [3 Claim(s) M ^are rejected.
?)□ Claim(s) is/are objected to.

8) 13 Claim(s) 1-21 are subject to restriction and/or election requirement.

Application Papers

9) n The specification is objected to by the Examiner.

10) 0 The drawing(s) filed on is/are: a)\3 accepted or b)n objected to by the Examiner.

Applicant may not request that any objection to the drawing(s) be held in abeyance. See 37 CFR 1.85(a).
Replacement drawing sheet(s) including the correction is required if the drawing(s) is objected to. See 37 CFR 1.121(d).

11) 0 The oath or declaration is objected to by the Examiner. Note the attached Office Action or form PTO-152.

Priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119

12) 0 Acl^nowledgment is made of a claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a)-(d) or (0-
a)n All b)n Some * 0)0 None of:

1 .□ Certified copies of the priority documents have been received.

2. n Certified copies of the priority documents have been received in Application No. _.

3. n Copies of the certified copies of the priority documents have been received in this National Stage

application from the International Bureau (PCT Rule 17.2(a)).
* See the attached detailed Office action for a list of the certified copies not received.

Attachment(s)

-1.)-[Zl-Notice.of-Referenees-Gited (PTO-892)^ 4) CD Interview Sunnmary (PTO-413)

2) □ Notice of Draftsperson's Patent Drawing Review (PTO-948) ^ Paper No(s)/Mail Date. .

3) □ Information Disclosure Statement(s) (PTO-1449 or PTO/SB/08) 5) □ Notice of Informal Patent Application (PTO-152)
Paper No(s)/Mail Date . 6) □ Other: .

U.S. Patent and Trademari< Office

PTOL-326 (Rev. 1-04)

Office Action Summary

Part of Paper No./Mail Date 0704

Application/Control Number: 09/955,076
Art Unit: 2814

Page 2

Attorney's Docket Number: 214019US2
Filing Date: 9/19/01

Continuing Data: RCE established 5/8/03 and 4/26/04
Claimed Foreign Priority Date: 9/21/00 (JPX)
Applicant(s): Sakagami

Examiner: Howard Weiss
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114

1 . A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.1 14, including the fee set forth
in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this
application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1 .114, and the fee set
forth in 37 CFR 1 .17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action
has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on
4/26/04 has been entered.

Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103

2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all
obviousness rejections set forth in this Office' action:

(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set
forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented
and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time
the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter
pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.

3. Claims 1 to 3, 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable
over Fang (U.S. Patent No. 6,023,085), Reisinger (U.S. Patent No. 6,137,718),
Pradeep et al. (U.S. Patent No. 6,228,713) and Jang et al. (U.S. Patent No.
5,786,262).

Fang shows most aspects of the instant invention (e.g. Figures 7 and 9) including:
> a semiconductor substrate 304

Application/Control Number: 09/955,076
Art Unit: 2814

Page 3

> a first cell transistor 346 including a first gate insulating film 308, a charge
storage layer 316a and a first gate electrode 338 said charge storage layer
existing only below the first gate electrode

> a second selection transistor 344 including a second gate insulating film 336 and
a second gate electrode 338 laterally separate form the first gate electrode

> peripheral transistors 332, 342 with gate electrodes 338 and gate insulting films
337,336 of different thicknesses

Ogura et al. do not show the first and second transistor isolated by a trench, a
bottom insulating film formed on the trench inner surface and an insulating layer
filling said trench on said bottom insulating layer, said first gate insulating film
comprising a silicon oxide/silicon nitride/silicon oxide (ONO) multi-film structure with
the silicon nitride film as said charge storage layer, the height of the charge storage
layer above the substrate lower than the height of the material filling said trench and
the width of the charge storage layer corresponding to a width of the element region
and a thickness of the bottom insulating film.

Reisinger teaches (e.g. Figure 1 and Column 5 Lines 45 to 56) to form an ONO gate
insulating layer 5 with a silicon nitride layer 52 as a charge storage layer, the
thicknesses of said layers within the claimed ranges and the thickness of the bottom
oxide layer 51 smaller than the top oxide layer 53 to increase storage density and
data retention (Column 2 Lines 7 to 12). It would have been obvious to a person of
ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form an ONO gate insulating layer
with a silicon nitride layer as a charge storage layer, the thicknesses within the
claimed ranges and the thickness of the bottom oxide layer is smaller than the top
oxide layer as taught by Reisinger in the device of Fang to increase storage density
and data retention.

Pradeep et al. te ach (e,g. Figure 7A) to isolate memor y _ceUs_withJnenchJsolations-
24 in element isolation regions with the charge storage layer 14 with a height lower

Application/Control Number: 09/955,076 Page 4

Art Unit: 2814

than the trench isolations and restricted from said element isolation regions to
reduce the masking and etching steps and create a self-aligned structure (Column 1
Lines 49 to 53). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at
the time of invention to isolate memory cells with trench isolations in element
isolation regions with the charge storage layer with a height lower than the trench
isolations and restricted from said element isolation regions as taught by Pradeep et
al. in the device of Fang to reduce the masking and etching steps and create a self-
aligned structure.

Jang et al. teach (e.g. Figure 10) to form a bottom insulating layer 14 in a trench's
inner surface 10 (Figure 8) to provide better isolation (Column 4 Lines 31 to 38). The
Examiner notes that the position of the bottom insulating layer of Jang et al. when
combined with the features of the prior art above, the width of the charge storage
layer will correspond to a width of an element region and a thickness of the bottom
insulating film. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at
the time of invention to form a bottom insulating layer in a trench's inner surface so
the width of the charge storage layer will correspond to a width of an element region
and a thickness of the bottom insulating film as taught by Jang et al. in the device of
Fang to provide better isolation.

4. Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Fang,
Pradeep et al., Jang et al. and Reisinger, as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in
view of AganA/al et al. (U.S. Patent No. 6,201,276)

Fang, Pradeep et al., Jang et al. and Reisinger disclose the claimed invention
(Paragraph 3) except that the charge storage layer comprising either a silicon nitride
or a tantalum oxide film instead of either a strontium titanate or a barium strontium
titanate film. Agarwal et al. teach (Column 4 Lines 33 to 36) that either a strontium
titinate or a barium strontium titanate film are eq uivalent_structure-.known-inJhe-art.-
Therefore, because these charge storage films were art-recognized equivalents at

Application/Control Number: 09/955,076
Art Unit: 2814

Page 5

the time the invention was made, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it
obvious to substitute either silicon nitride or tantalum oxide for strontium titinate or
barium strontium titanate.

Response to Arguments

5. Applicant's arguments with respect to Claims 1 to 6 have been considered but are
moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.

Conclusion

6. Papers related to this application may be submitted directly to Art Unit 2814 by
facsimile transmission. The faxing of such papers must conform with the notice
published in the Official Gazette, 1096 OG 30 (15 November 1989). The Art Unit
2814 Fax Center number is (703) 872-9306. The Art Unit 2814 Fax Center is to be
used only for papers related to Art Unit 2814 applications.

7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the
examiner should be directed to Howard Weiss at (571) 272-1720 and between the
hours of 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time) Monday through Friday or by
e-mail via Howard.Weiss@uspto.gov.

Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application should be
directed to the Group 2800 Receptionist at (703) 308-0956.

Application/Control Number: 09/955,076

Page 6

Art Unit: 2814

8. The following list is the Exanniner's field of search for the present Office Action:

Class / Subclass(es): 257/ 324,326

thru 7/23/04

Other Documentation: none

Electronic Database(s): EAST

thru 7/23/04

HW/hw

23 July 2004

Howard Weiss
Examiner
Art Unit 281 4